


air combat manuevering

by sweetwatersong



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Women, Gen, Post-Iron Man 2, Women In Power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 06:26:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10634148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetwatersong/pseuds/sweetwatersong
Summary: Where do your loyalties lie? When a threat arises, where will you fly? A story and a question between two women.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Crazy4Orcas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy4Orcas/gifts).



> For crazy4orcas, who prompted "Teamwork, Pepper and Natasha."

“Have you ever seen a songbird drive off an eagle?” Pepper asks Natasha as the jet cruises towards Los Angeles and their upcoming conference. Natasha looks up from her tablet and watches the CEO of Stark Industries, the very picture of composure and grace as her manicured hands fold neatly into her lap. “I saw it once, when Tony thought it would be a great idea to find a lakeside cabin and hide there for a few days. He’d had another spate with Obadiah and both of them needed to cool their heels before they tried talking again. So for a week Tony sulked in the basement tinkering with an old bike and I sat in a deck chair watching the sunsets. Cocktails included.”

She glances out the plane window, her thoughts clearly somewhere other than the limitless sky on the horizon. Perhaps on the meetings she has invited Natasha to attend with her under the guise of an assistant, perhaps on the power and unknown motivations of the organization that backs her. Perhaps on a still and quiet forest, miles away from here.

“It was spring, and the first time I’d seen baby birds starting to fledge. There was a particular nest just by the shoreline that I could see from the deck. I only realized later that if I could see it, so could the ravens and hawks. There a storm rolling in one evening when a bald eagle flew over, clearly looking for a meal. He landed in the same tree as that nest. For a moment I thought it was all over. Then the parents started screaming from the trees, drawing the attention of the other birds, and they all began filling the branches around the eagle. It really put into perspective how big he was.”

Natasha catches the distracted twitch of her lips, how they pull down for a heartbeat for settling back into an unaffected line.

“The eagle must have sat there for almost five minutes, eyeing the nest and enduring the birds berating him. When he started to move, though, the songbirds took off. They weren’t fleeing; they were getting enough room to start mobbing him.” Pepper shakes her head at the memory. “It was the most incredible thing. A dozen little birds against a huge raptor capable of tearing them apart without thinking about it, and they didn’t give up. All to protect their charges.” 

She looks back at Natasha with other words in her eyes, the cream of her suit a sharp contrast to her crimson nails. “They dove at him, over and over, each time working furiously to get just high enough for another dive. And against all odds, it worked.” Her demeanor shifts and eases back into the casual storyteller. Her voice, meanwhile, has never shifted from light and reminiscing.

“Finally the eagle decided he’d rather keep moving, and the nestlings were safe - for another day, at least. Tony insisted on leaving two days later, predictably with an armful of the same plans he had fought with Obadiah over, and I never found out how many eventually survived.”

Natasha watches Pepper, reading everything there that she won’t say aloud, and wonders if Tony ever realizes the red on his suit doesn’t come from whimsy alone.

She nods once, holding Pepper’s sharp blue gaze. It is not a gesture to tell her that the message has been received and understood; they would not be the women they are today if such things were needed. It is a promise.

If SHIELD ever moves against Anthony Stark, Natasha and all those she can summon will stand with him.

“With a love like that, perhaps they all made it,” the Black Widow comments quietly. Pepper smiles faintly with real warmth.

“I’d like to think so.”

If they have anything to say, at least one iron-feathered flier will survive too.


End file.
